In apparent response to critics, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, said a few weeks back that Nigerians should not expect lawmakers to cut down on investigations. In this piece, Adesuwa Tsan takes a look at one of such probes which will commence when it resumes next week.
Almost all committees in the House of Representatives, including ad-hoc committees, have a pile of investigations waiting to be dispensed of. This is just as there have been complaints in some quarters criticising the incessant probes the legislature embarks on. As the lawmakers resume from their break, many of such committees will set out to work on these investigations.
Aware of the reactions of some members of the public over the high numbers of probes the House is involved in, the speaker said the probes are based on petitions from the public and as such, cannot be cut short unless the country is rid of corruption and people no longer have petitions on the matter.
He said; “I have heard comments from certain section of the public decrying the incessant investigations and probes by the House of Representatives and indeed by the National Assembly. Let me hasten to say that we do not manufacture allegations in aid of probes and investigations, rather, these arise out of our routine oversight duties and written petitions from members of the public”, Tambuwal said.
He added; “the day we rid the country of corruption and impunity, you shall from that day, hear no more of probes and investigations”. Addressing members of the committee, he urged them to live above board in carrying out the investigation, stating that the House “will not hesitate to take decisive measures where the need arises to protect the integrity of the House as an institution”.
The investigation which Nigerians are keenly watching out for is that of the state of the nation’s economy.
The House Committee on Finance chaired by Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin will begin the probe of the Finance ministry to ascertain the state of the nation’s economy. The enquiry is expected to cover the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and other major decisions taken by the minister, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on behalf of Nigerians.
Explaining the motive behind the probe, Abdulmumin had explained that what “senior officers from the executive discuss with us in private regarding the sad situation of our economy and the so called dwindling revenue base is not in tandem with positions they hold in the public arena.”
Other questions raised border on the economic achievements of this government in 2013, indices growing the economy, success recorded in making necessary cuts, reasons why the economy cannot grow beyond a single digit and reasons for low GDP in comparison to other countries.
The House had in November mandated the finance committee to carry out an investigative hearing to determine the risk arising from the appointment of UBS and Goldman Sachs to manage the Nigerian Sovereign Wealth Fund after leader of the minority in the House, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, raised questions about conflict of interests in the engagement of former employees of UBS and Goldman Sachs, to manage the SWF when some supervisory officials of government in the finance sector are ex-staff of the organisations.
“This amounts to entrusting Nigeria’s savings, wealth, economic sovereignty and security in the hands of foreigners, was additionally perturbed that the appointment of the foreign firms preceded the establishment of the Governing Council by an Act of the National Assembly, thus leaving the House in doubt as to the transparency of the process that led to their appointments,” he said.
Highlights of the questions given to the finance minister to assist the committee in its state of the nation probe include:
1. What should you consider as the major economic achievements of this government in the 2013 fiscal year and why? In your explanation, we will need facts and figures in demonstrating such achievements.
2. You have been credited with many announcements regarding Nigeria’s economy as one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. If the economy is one of the fast growing economies, what is exactly growing the economy? What role does government play in the said economic growth, especially given that as high as 80 percent of the country’s total annual budget spending still goes into recurrent expenditure?
3. Since your arrival as minister of finance in 2011, you have publicly announced the need to reduce the recurrent expenditure so that more money would be made available to capital spending which is critical to growing and diversifying the country’s economy. How far has government succeeded in making these necessary cuts; and where exactly have these cuts been made in this effort to reduce recurrent expenditure? In other words, based on real amount spent on capital expenditure, how much reduction was made in 2011 against 2010, in 2012 against 2011 and in 2013 against 2012?
4. You are known to be celebrating a single-digit GDP growth. But speaking recently at a breakfast dialogue with some members of the organized private sector in Lagos, organized by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), you were quoted as saying: “We are growing, but not creating enough jobs. That is a very big challenge…We need to grow faster. I think it needs to grow at least 9 to 10 percent to drive job growth the way we want.” Don’t you agree that a good finance minister managing an economy like ours should be celebrating a GDP growth as high as 20 percent annually? Why is it that our economy cannot grow beyond a single digit? How many jobs are being created as a result of these said growths? In which sectors of the economy are these jobs created? If in private sector, what contributions is government making to further assist these private sector firms?
5. In the presence of Nigeria’s huge infrastructure deficit, why is it that the country’s debt-to-GDP at about 19 percent in 2012 remains one of the lowest in the world when compared to nations already with world-class infrastructure and industrial economies such as America’s 105 percent, Brazil’s 65.49 percent, India’s 67.60 percent, and South Africa’s 40.9 percent?
6. Since facts don’t lie, have you any disagreements with the September 4, 2013 Global Competitiveness Report of the World Economic Forum for 2013-2014, which ranked Nigeria 120th out of 148 countries ranked in the Global Competitiveness Index, including being ranked far behind some African countries such as Mauritius 45th, South Africa 53rd, and Kenya 96th?
7. ”For the first time in Nigeria’s 53rd year history, we have successfully privatized the electric power industry,’’ so said the President at a recent meeting in London with some foreign investors. As minister of finance should you agree that the recent privatization of the country’s power infrastructure is worth celebrating as a major economic achievement in 2013, when in reality there is little or nothing to show as an improvement in the country power supply? Also why our rush to wholesale privatization of the power sector when countries like South Africa, generating as high as 42,000MW still have their power sector mostly in public hands?
8. What was your reaction to the November 12, 2013 statement credited to the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, who said that over 100 million Nigerians are today living in absolute destitution, representing an unheard-of 8.33 percent of the world’s total number of people living in destitution?
9. Nigerians are increasingly perplexed that these days nothing happens without government borrowing. And for most Nigerians, it is frightening how those managing the economy are just dragging us into excessively unproductive debts. More worrisome is the fact that every effort is being made to hide the details of the country’s debt stock from Nigerians. Where are the facts that the country’s current high rate of borrowing is productive, let alone have the ability to be repaid without having to resort to more borrowings?
10. Is prudence in our borrowing simply reduction in borrowing or simply constructive borrowing with government putting necessary measures in place to ensure that domestic debt profile is properly supervised and utilised by curbing corruption?
Source: Leadership
February 03, 2014, 10:19:21 AM